Author: Chatinian Lara

Azeri-NATO cooperation shrouded in secrecy – Azeri pundit
BBC Monitoring Caucasus
19 November 2004
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow, in Russian 16 Nov 04 pp 1,5
Military cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO long ago transcended
the bounds of cooperation within the Partnership for Peace programme,
but is shrouded in secrecy, according to an Azeri military
expert. Uzeyir Cafarov said that preparation was under way for a
programme to train the Azeri military, similar to Georgia’s Train and
Equip programme, which would begin in 2005. He said that there were
already “several dozen” US servicemen in Azerbaijan. One Azeri Defence
Ministry spokesman confirmed that NATO servicemen were conducting
training courses in Azerbaijan under Partnership for Peace, while the
ministry’s main spokesman denied it, according to a report in Russian
newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The following is the text of Rauf
Mirqadirov’s report in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 16 November headlined
“American soldiers have landed in Azerbaijan. The republic’s Defence
Ministry is doing all it can to conceal this fact”; subheadings
inserted editorially:
Baku – One Azerbaijani socio-political newspaper reported a few days
ago that more than 50 NATO servicemen, mainly Americans, are stationed
at the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry’s instruction and training centre
in the settlement of Cuxanli, Salyan District. According to the
newspaper report, starting next year the Americans intend to begin
implementing a programme in Azerbaijan analogous to Georgia’s Train
and Equip programme.
Contradictory comment from Defence Ministry on role of US instructors
In conversation with journalists Ilqar Verdiyev, an employee of the
Azerbaijani Defence Ministry press office, confirmed this report,
stating, however, that foreign servicemen come to Azerbaijan only to
participate in specific projects for the implementation of the NATO
Partnership for Peace programme. He said that various courses are
continually being held at the Cuxanli instruction and training centre
under the auspices of this programme. “They are courses in teaching
foreign languages, in inculcating NATO terminology and in organizing
peace activities,” Verdiyev stated.
However, Azerbaijani Defence Ministry press office chief Ramiz Malikov
categorically denied this report, stating that he has no information
on the training of Azerbaijanis by American instructors.
Officials do not rule out US military presence
At the same time, Deputy Alimammad Nuriyev, a member of the
parliamentary defence and security standing commission, indirectly
confirmed rumours about the arrival of the US servicemen: “There is
nothing surprising about our soldiers being trained by Americans. It
is no secret that, following the start of combat operations in
Afghanistan and Iran, the Americans have been making active use of our
military airfields for transit purposes. Simply, we are not in the
habit of talking about it.”
Araz Azimov, Azerbaijani deputy foreign minister, does not rule out,
either, the possibility that American mobile forces have arrived in
the country. “Azerbaijan does not rule out future participation in the
alliance’s rapid-response operations, since new challenges demand a
flexible and swift reaction. In the context of globalization the
development of any crisis demands a prompt reaction,” Azimov said.
Secrecy surrounds Azeri-NATO cooperation
Azerbaijani analysts have focused attention on the phrase “any
crisis”. Uzeyir Cafarov, an independent military expert and former
high-ranking Defence Ministry employee, thinks that cooperation
between Baku and NATO transcended the bounds of the Partnership for
Peace programme long ago. In conversation with your Nezavisimaya
Gazeta correspondent he emphasized the secrecy surrounding information
about cooperation: “Both the Defence Ministry and NATO representatives
try not to speak too openly on this matter.” The expert reminded me
that NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated in Baku
recently that Azerbaijan has already been given its
“homework”. Cafarov said that active preparations are now under way to
implement a programme similar to Georgia’s Train and Equip programme,
which will most probably be “launched” officially in 2005. It may
involve utilizing the “military training ground in Qara Heybat,
situated not far from Baku, where NATO exercises were to have been
staged recently but were called off, as well as the instruction and
training centre in the settlement of Cuxanli in Salyan District. They
fully meet the standards of the North Atlantic bloc.” Cafarov claims
that there are already several dozen American servicemen in the
country.
USA may want to use Azerbaijan to launch strikes on Iran
In recent days practically all the independent Azerbaijani newspapers
have been actively discussing reports in the foreign news media to the
effect that Washington and Baku are holding active consultations on
using the territory of Azerbaijan for the purpose of launching a
strike against Iran. Some media, referring to military sources, are
even publishing various plans of future military operations.
Azar Rasidoglu, an expert at the East-West political research centre,
told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that it may be supposed even now that the
European Union will almost unanimously oppose an anti-Iranian military
operation. Besides, Azerbaijan would irrevocably spoil its relations
with its closest partner in the region – Turkey. “Turkey, no less than
Europe, depends on deliveries of energy sources from Iran. In
addition, Ankara has no interest in seeing the birth of yet another
active hotbed of Kurdish armed separatism alongside its own borders,”
the political analyst told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
As a land-based launch pad for its intervention operations, Washington
could also, theoretically, use the territory of Armenia, Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. Armenia and Syria may immediately be
scratched from this list. Also, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, on whose
territories guerrilla warfare is taking place, provide a reliable
logistical base.
Azerbaijani military experts are coming to the conclusion that the
United States may regard only the territory of Azerbaijan as a
reliable launch pad for its intervention into Iran. For example,
independent military expert Casur Mammadov told Nezavisimaya Gazeta:
“What is also noticeable is the list of military facilities at which,
according to media reports, the Americans already are, or will be,
deployed. They are primarily the settlements of Cuxanli and Nasosni,
not far from Baku. Both are located close to military airfields which
have very recently been upgraded, and they are practically ready for
launching air strikes against Iran. Apart from this, reports appeared
very recently to the effect that the Americans are about to deploy
TRML-3D mobile air defence radar stations in Azerbaijan. It is
reasonable to suppose that, in the event of strikes against Iran, it
is unlikely that the Americans can count on receiving essential
information from Russia’s Qabala radar station,” the expert believes.
Mammadov stressed, moreover, that the military base in the settlement
of Cuxanli has access to the Caspian Sea. And the Americans have
already set about upgrading Azerbaijan’s naval forces. In the expert’s
opinion, the military base at Cuxanli is very conveniently located,
from a military operations viewpoint. “From that base to the Iranian
border is just a stone’s throw,” Mammadov remarked.

PanArmenian News
Nov 18 2004
“YARKHUSHTA” (“MILITARY DANCE”) – PREMIERE OF YOUNG FILM DIRECTOR
HARUTYUNIAN PICTURE HELD IN YEREVAN
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The principal hero of “Yarkhushta” (“Military
Dance”) is Pargev – a volunteer soldier, who got disabled in the
Artsakh (Karabakh) war and continues his struggle after reentering
the peaceful life and comes out undefeated. The press and the country
society has widely responded to the first film of young film director
G. Harutyunian. Pargev, who lost his leg in the liberation war, goes
to the town from his village to phone his daughter, who is in
Holland. On his way he encounters the indifference and often contempt
of people. He is taken for a mendicant in the town. A sexual minority
representative, who had taken the former warrior for a beggar, throws
a coin to him. Pargev’s patience comes to an end and he strikes the
person, who gave him the coin. At a certain moment the film hero
finds himself in despair. Tearfully he asks his daughter by phone to
speak Armenian with her children. The daughter suggests the father to
leave all and to move to Holland. Pargev, who shed his blood for the
country, refuses. He also refuses from a Dutch artificial limb. “You
will even be able to dance military dance yarkhushta,” his daughter
tells him. However Pargev objects, “An Armenian man should dance his
dance on an Armenian prosthetic device on the Armenian land.” In the
final the hero dances yarkhushta – the dance of struggle, remaining
undefeated in the native land. “There is weeping in the film, the
film director says, however it is not a weeping of despair, but a
purifying, sobering weeping. …Pargev is one of those, who did not
give up in the battlefield and his struggle continues.” The film
premiere is also expected to be held in Moscow cinema in Yerevan.

Agence France Presse
17 novembre 2004 mercredi 5:02 PM GMT
Mondial-2006/qualifications – Arménie et Roumanie 1 à 1
EREVAN 17 nov
L’Arménie et la Roumanie ont fait match nul 1 à 1 (mi-temps: 0-1) en
qualifications de la zone Europe (groupe 1) au Mondial-2006 de
football, mercredi à Erevan.
Buts:
Arménie: Dokhoyan (63)
Roumanie: Marica (29)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GEORGIA RESTORING THE S-125 ANTI-AIRCRAFT COMPLEX
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 10, 2004, Wednesday
The Georgian Defense Ministry stated that restoration of the S-125
complex will soon be accomplished. This complex broke over ten years
ago. Georgia needed special devices in order to restore this complex
to arsenals of the Poti military base. At present representatives of
the Defense Ministry are holding negotiations with Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Bulgaria over the supply of such systems.
Source: Krasnaya Zvezda, November 4, 2004, p. 3

PERSONAL BUSINESS POISONING THE SOCIETY
A1 Plus | 14:14:17 | 08-11-2004 | Social |
Yerevan Municipality Monitoring Group for Conservancy studied activity
of 35 managing subjects in Yerevan and fixed: there are no sewer
outlet networks in 26 of them. As a result the industrial waste of
the establishments – chemical, food and sewerage, are thrown into
Getar and Hrazdan River. 7 out of 26 are located in Hrazdan Canyon.
Romik Kosemyan, head of Municipality Department on Conservancy,
has informed today that the owners of the subjects have been
fined. According to Kosemyan, Municipality has worked out a project,
under which all the managing subjects running in Yerevan will be
brought to the legislative field beginning from 2005.

Denver Post, CO
Nov. 4, 2004
Procedures underway to deport Armenians
By Nancy Lofholm
Denver Post Staff Writer

Deportation proceedings will begin today for several Armenians who have
fought to remain in Ridgway, their adopted home on the Western Slope.
Four members of the Sargsyan family have received notices requiring
them to show up at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
detention center in Aurora, where they will be held until they can be
sent back to Armenia – a place where they say they face persecution.
Two others continue to fight deportation in separate cases.
The family’s members have waged a six-year legal battle to stay in the
U.S., where they have become valued members of the Ridgway and Ouray
communities.
The Sargsyans’ attorneys say they still hope to stop the deportation by
obtaining visas for foreigners who have been the victims of human
trafficking.
But immigration officials say the legal process has run its course.

“The bottom line … is that there is a final rule of order, and it’s
time for them to be going home now,” said Doug Maurer, Aurora field
office director for the immigration department.
The Sargsyans’ effort to be accepted in a new country began in 1994
when Nvart Sargsyan was 19. She married 53-year-old American Vaughn
Huckfeldt, who was working in the Armenian capital of Yerevan and was
purported to be a wealthy minister.
Huckfeldt brought Nvart to the U.S. when she was nearly nine months’
pregnant. She discovered he didn’t have a home, and said he began
abusing her. Several Ridgway residents said they witnessed that abuse,
but Huckfeldt was never convicted of a crime.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Sargsyan family were being threatened in
Armenia by people who the Sargsyans said gave Huckfeldt money to obtain
visas that never came through.
Huckfeldt, who reportedly is living in Germany and could not be
reached, eventually obtained student visas for the Sargsyans, and they
came to Ridgway early in 1999. They said they did not understand their
visas required them to attend school.
Nvart filed for divorce that year and Huckfeldt responded by notifying
immigration authorities that the family was in the country
fraudulently.
Since that time, the family has fought through a snarl of courts and
through tightened regulations under the Department of Homeland
Security.
Nvart remarried and, as the wife of an American citizen, is trying to
obtain a green card. Family matriarch Susan Sargsyan was not included
in today’s deportation ruling because she has not exhausted all of her
appeals.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for immigration and customs, said the
community support for the Sargsyans will not affect their deportation.
“The public need to understand that regardless of whether they have
made a contribution to the community they are not above the law,” she
said.

EU envoy optimistic about Karabakh talks – Azeri TV
ANS TV, Baku
28 Oct 04
[Presenter] The visiting EU special representative in the South
Caucasus, Heikki Talvitie, has started his meetings. Today he met
Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission [CEC] Mazahir Panahov
and Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov.
[Talvitie, speaking to microphone in English with Azeri voice-over]
I briefed Araz Azimov on our discussions at the CEC. Then we talked
about the new neighbourhood policy, a report on Azerbaijan, Georgia
and Armenia which is being drawn up now and the ways of reflecting
reforms there.
We also discussed the [Karabakh] resolution process with the
involvement of the OSCE Minsk Group. In general, this is a very
difficult process. We should not be downbeat about the fact that we
haven’t reached any results as quickly as we hoped to. The process
is under way and the two parties to the conflict are making serious
efforts in the two peoples’ interests. I am optimistic about this.

STATE OIL FUND REVENUES STEADILY RISE
[October 25, 2004, 21:09:20]
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
25 Oct. 2004
Revenues of the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan republic made AZM
819,8 bln, and expenditures – AZM 625,4 bln from January to September
2004. The Fund’s press service announced that for this period, the
revenues from oil contracts were AZM 819,8 bln, including AZM 677,8
bln from selling profitable oil, AZM 47,7 bln from transit payment
for transportation of oil along the territory of the Republic of
Azerbaijan through the Baku-Supsa export pipeline, AZM 7,9 bln from
bonus payments, and AZM 6,3 bln from per acre payments. Revenues from
foreign companies’ assets made up AZM 2,3 bln.
During the nine month of 2004, the Oil Fund Budget set aside AZM
15,7 bln to finance settling and improvement of social conditions
of refugee and IDP families ousted from native lands as a result of
the ethnic purge committed by Armenia, AZM 36,4 bln as share of the
Azerbaijan Republic in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline
project, and AZM 488 bln were transferred to the State Budget.
Expenditures for the mentioned period constituted AZM 51,7 and those
connected with revaluation of currency assets – AZM 49,4 bln. The
State budget received AZM 33,6 bln. in tax revenues.
The Fund’s resources made up AZM 4 trillion 209 bln (approx US$ 857,7
mln) in 31 September 2004 against AZM 4 trillion 15 bln (approx US$
815 mln) in 1 January 2004.
/US $1 = AZM 4,903/

ALBUM DEDICATED TO RECORDS OF KHACHATRIAN’S PIECES
Azg/am
23 Oct 04
The Teghekatu, official newspaper of Cairo branch of Armenian General
Benevolence Union, informed that with the sponsorship of Satenik Chagr
Foundation a valuable and unique album was issued in Cairo, dedicated
to the records of Aram Khachatrian’s pieces. Hayk Avagian,
Egyptian-Armenian talented young musical critic, was the author of the
album. He included all the records of the master’ s pieces made in
various countries of the world.
The album is in English which makes it more valuable. It contains
information on 152 records (pieces, musicians, places and dates) given
in the first two sections. The first part includes the records, while
the second includes the CDs.
Mr. Avagian states in the album that he doesn’t consider it a
complete, but he hopes that it will serve as a good source for further
studies in the sphere.
The album was published in Nupar publishing house.
By Hakob Tsulikian

The Messenger, Georgia
Oct 22 2004
Southern route
According to the Russian newspaper Gudok, Russian Minister of
Transport Igor Levitin has been carrying out a working trip to the
Caucasus countries. After Armenia, he visited Azerbaijan, where he
continued negotiations regarding the opening of railway across the
entire Caucasus. According to him, there is a large volume of
transportation in the region of the South Caucasus.
The newspaper writes that although it is impossible to reach the same
volume of transportation as was during the Soviet Union, the
transportation of 15 million tons of cargo per year is a real
possibility. During the negotiation with the Azeri President Ilham
Aliev and Azeri Minister of Transport Zia Mamedov, Igor Levitin
offered to renew the Sochi-Baku railway through Georgia.
“If it were possible to renew the movement according to this route,
we would be able to transport a large volume of cargo, perhaps in the
millions of tons,” he said, adding that this would certainly be
possible if an agreement between Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia could
be reached.
The minister stressed that the railways must be kept out of politics.
“These routes came to us from the big country in which we lived
together. If there is political will, and the meetings with the Azeri
president and Azerbaijan leadership showed us that there is, then it
is necessary to put political issues aside and to build
non-territorial transport links,” noted Levitin.
According to the paper, the Sochi-Sukhumi railway is operating at the
present time and is in good condition. The prospects of continuing
the route through Georgian territory is dependent only on the
political will of all the sides.